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sfcrazy writes "Valve Software, creator of Half-Life and Left 4 Dead, has announced that SteamOS will be available for public download on December 13. That's the day when the company will start shipping Steam Machines and Steam Controllers to the 300 selected beta participants. The company said, 'SteamOS will be made available when the prototype hardware ships. It will be downloadable by individual users and commercial OEMs. (But unless you're an intrepid Linux hacker already, we're going to recommend that you wait until later in 2014 to try it out.)"

"Are they providing a sensible version of GNOME? I very want to shuck Ubuntu, and this would let me have my Steam games *and* a usable desktop system."

This isn't the Linux you're looking for. This is stripped down and intended to run Steam in Big Picture mode all the time. No desktop at all. The standard Steam client on a Linux system is what you're looking for.

Personally, I shy away from the bleeding edge Linux systems and stick with CentOS.

"Anyone who uses Steam's Big Picture Mode is already intimately acquainted with SteamOS, as they're very similar. SteamOS looks and acts like Big Picture Mode, except it's the basis for the entire hardware system. It's controller-friendly and easy to navigate. The same Steam splash page washes across the screen when it launches, and the same tile-based layout of games and the Steam store are visible at launch. As promised, the OS is built on Linux (not based on Ubuntu, we're told, but entirely custom), though you'd never know it as the only interactive layer is all Steam.

That means it also has the limitations of Steam: SteamOS is not the replacement for Windows 8 you've been waiting for. Beyond basics like browsing the web, there's little in the way of standard OS functions."

Because it's not aimed at people who want a desktop. It's aimed at people who have a device sitting under their TV and want a simple navigable interface to play games or do other activities of a similar nature (e.g. streaming content).

This is not for "OS" use.. it's meant to be installed on a media-center style box in your living room by your TV. The only interaction with it is meant to be through a controller - it's not for you to compile code on, instead it's for your kid to pick up a controller and start a game without any "computer" work. It's a pretty cool idea when you think about it, let people build their own "console gaming systems", and just give them a nice OS that will drive them.

"Anyone who uses Steam's Big Picture Mode is already intimately acquainted with SteamOS, as they're very similar. SteamOS looks and acts like Big Picture Mode, except it's the basis for the entire hardware system. It's controller-friendly and easy to navigate. The same Steam splash page washes across the screen when it launches, and the same tile-based layout of games and the Steam store are visible at launch. As promised, the OS is built on Li

It should pretty obvious that SteamOS is not intended for desktop use. It might be possible to install a desktop, but this is primarily meant for use under a TV or similar set up. I even doubt that people are expected to even install games onto the OS itself. I expect the ultimate intention is Valve will launch a cloud service so that SteamOS is just a minimal frontend for games running somewhere else.

I even doubt that people are expected to even install games onto the OS itself.

No, no-one will install games on this thing. It's not like Steam has the most successful gaming app store ever.
(I'm guessing you mean "install from a third party", and that will probably be difficult, yes.)

I expect the ultimate intention is Valve will launch a cloud service so that SteamOS is just a minimal frontend for games running somewhere else.

This doesn't make sense from a lot of perspectives. One is latency. Another is the fact that they've spent a lot of time, money and PR on making a box+OS to actually run games on, including large improvements to the Linux GPU drivers. A third is the fact that all previous attempts have failed, see OnLiv

There's been a lot of hype and misconceptions about SteamOS within the gaming community especially. SteamOS isn't a desktop OS, it's a console OS and needs to be understood as such. It won't be a whole lot of use unless you're planning to set up a PC for use as a console.

The application that actually makes a sustaining market for a promising but under-utilized technology. First used in the mid-1980s to describe Lotus 1-2-3 once it became evident that demand for that product had been the major driver of the early business market for IBM PCs. The term was then retrospectively applied to VisiCalc, which had played a similar role in the success of the Apple II. After 1994 it became commonplace to describe the World Wide Web as the Intern

...if you're doing Linux gamedev or are already using Steam on Linux...you may well be ready for that.

Me?

BRING IT

If you're serious about gaming on Linux, you're probably already doing that, actually... with a standard system. Unless you weren't actually planning on hooking it up to a TV in the first place (I wasn't).

I can state, for example, that my USB XBoX controller works perfectly on Linux, and is supported by all but one or two of the games I have bought on Steam for Linux. It also works in Steam itself, for Big Picture mode. I also know for a fact that the HDMI out on my desktop/gaming system supports audio and

I also know for a fact that the HDMI out on my desktop/gaming system supports audio and 1080p to the TV. From there it's really trivial to set a desktop up [...] and put it on a TV.

I've said this on Slashdot for years. But often, I've been told that the majority are unwilling to build or buy a second computer to dedicate to the TV. Whether computers that ship with SteamOS will change this is still unknown, but OUYA (an Android/Linux-based game console) hasn't made much of a dent.

If you use a normal PC, nothing but inertia prevents the system from dual booting steamos and the desktop of your choice.

And it is inertia that makes it so inconvenient. I mean this literally [wikipedia.org]: a desktop computer at rest stays at rest unless acted on by an outside force, such as by being carried into another room. Most people don't want to have to move a desktop computer from the desk to the TV to play a game and then move it back to surf the web.

my Mint running i7 in the living room

You happen to have your computer desk in your living room. Not everybody else does. Some people keep the computer desk in another room in order to preserve some level of peace and quiet.

and when I want to use a computer on "me time", I prefer the recliner.

I want to agree with you. For a while, I ran my PC through an HDTV and put the keyboard on a tray table. But if your family's primary PC uses the living room TV as its monitor, then you can't watch TV while your kids are doing typed homework.

Thankfully [the netbook] is a niche that many workplaces have a need for

Thank you for finding that Toshiba netbook. I'm glad to know that more than just a minority of hardcore geeks have a use for an ultraportable 10" laptop like the Dell Inspiron mini 1012 that I'm typing this comment on, even if it does compromise CPU power. And no, I don't have a problem running LibreOffice on Xubuntu on this netbook. But what worries me on that page is the word "Used". What happens once all the still-working used netbooks on Amazon are bought up?

What happens once all the still-working used netbooks on Amazon are bought up?

I'm pretty sure you can still find 'em... this one [asus.com] for example is on sale this week, for damn near netbook prices [futureshop.ca]. Yes, it's about $100 more than most netbooks cost, but it's in the price range of a midrange tablet, and it has a keyboard.

If you prefer something cheaper, you could, you know, buy a tablet and a bluetooth keyboard for less.

And failing that, there are always chromebooks [google.com]. That was my plan for my next ultraportable... buy a 13" chromebook, wipe the drive, and install my Linux of choice....

Are the eighth-generation consoles also friendly to community-produced game mods [wikipedia.org], or is the publisher of a game the only entity allowed to make mods for that game? Without Half-Life modding there would have been no Counter-Strike.

I expect Linux is largely an irrelevance here since most of the games are going to be streaming from somewhere else. Of course Valve might encourage game devs to port their game to Linux to benefit from cheaper hosting fees if they release a cloud based platform and that might trickle down to native versions of those same apps.

I've found for testing some things installing an alternate distro in VirtualBox works for testing. As an example I had issues with the Planetary Annihilation Beta and couldn't get it running under my Ubuntu 13.10 installation. I installed Linux Mint in VB and ran Planetary Annihilation. The game played like crap of course under the VM, but it loaded normally confirming it was an issue with the game running specifically under Ubuntu 13.10. After confirming the issue if was a lot easier to pin point what was

The beta is U.S. Only, and that's a shame. I was hoping for the world wide beta test. But I guess they had their reasons. But at least the SteamOS will be downloadable so I can build my own device. I probably won't be investing too much time or money into it. If I buy Antec ISK300-150 and make a ~400€ AMD APU powered indie game device it would probably serve its duty well (and afterwards be a nice tiny server box). You people can probably recommend something better if this idea seems bad. Or share suggestions for others to read.

What really bothered me was that I wanted to be part of the beta (I seem to participate in lots of beta stuff) but unfortunately to be considered you had to play a game for 10 minutes with a controller or something like that to get the Steam badge that would throw you in the candidate pool.

Unfortunately I did not have a controller that I could get to work with my PC and I couldn't get the PS3 controller I had on hand to communicate with my PC.

If you weren't able to pass the almost non-existent qualifications for the beta then you probably aren't good beta tester material. Beta testing requires effort, perseverance, and the ability to solve problems and think intuitively about odd situations.

Why not get yourself a new midrange graphics card for your Linux box and just install the desktop Steam client?

Because it's not always convenient to run long HDMI cables and a bunch of USB hubs from the computer desk through a wall to the TV. Or because one's existing Linux box is a laptop or small-form-factor desktop that doesn't take graphics cards.

No, seriously. I can totally justify spending around $350 for a HTPC with gaming to experiment with. Cheaper than my wife's purse.$150 - AMD A10-6800K (with mobo over at Microcenter). Yes, I know Intel is faster and it's not the fastest GPU either but for $150 it's hard to beat the combo.$80 - 8GB of RAM$100 - 3TB hard driveand I have a bunch of old ATX cases and power supply.

It's Linux, if I don't like it I can always put something else on like Mint.

No offense but that "rig" is hardly a gaming one. As a PC and console gamer, spending more less than 800~1000 dollars on a gaming PC, specially if you're only gaming on a PC, feels like you're building a machine that with the worse of both worlds

Yeah you should just stop right about now. Here's some fun facts, a 3 year top of the line PC is more powerful than the current generation of consoles. My 2 year old PC, which I build for $600 was ranked 3rd fastest in the world in the Phenom II X4 965/560ti category with WHQL drivers for roughly two weeks, without any baseline tweaks. I haven't benched out my current one, but that one ran me right around $500. And with that $500, I'm playing at 1080p, getting a nice steady 40-60fps, on a AMD X6 FX-6300 w/ Sapphire 7950.

Now, if you're dropping $800-1k on something, and not beating the current generation of consoles you are: Buying from the wrong places, or live in a part of the world with massive import tariffs.

1080p for a game is just so-so even if your playing on a HDTV from just a couple of feet away.

Can't tell if trolling or really serious.

Come on, now. 1080p is the max resolution of an HDTV (higher res is normally called 4K). Are you saying that you play games on your HDTV at higher resolutions than the max resolution? If your intention is to have a 4K monitor and sit reaally close to it to cover most of your field-of-view, then you're doing it wrong. It's cheaper and much better to have multiple monitors, since then you can curve them around you.

Monitors used to be better than fucking tv's is the point. Now we've gotten retarded and gone backwards due to idiot box functions taking over most peoples understanding of what a computer display should be.

You are confusing the Free Software community with the Linux community.

I'm quite sure the Free Software community still has your ideals and you will probably find some like minded individuals there. Over the past few years, the "Linux community" now includes millions of people who accept locked bootloaders as standard and install closed source apps from an app store whose goal is to collect as much information about them as possible.

I've been using Linux a long time (15 years) and as my only desktop for the past 10 years. While I like and prefer the Freedom part, I much more prefer the stability, the free part, the plethora of apps that actually behave and just do what they are supposed to do, etc. IOW, I'd probably be a Mac user if you take monetary cost out of the calculation.

I'm a linux user and a free software supporter... i try to install everything as free as possible, even the graphic card drivers.I try to use FLOSS games (and there are many that are fun!) but also play closed ones. If i have the game without DRM (from humblebundle or desura), i will prefer it, if not, the steam DRM isn't that bad... It would be better without any DRM, but steam is very transparent and most users will never see that it even exists.

Over the past few years, the "Linux community" now includes millions of people who accept locked bootloaders as standard and install closed source apps from an app store whose goal is to collect as much information about them as possible.

Users have outnumbered developers at least since Slackware. Build a bridge, and clamber over it awkwardly.

Gaming is kiddy shit (sorry) and it's naive to expect much idealism from from the core audience.

Not that you're not a known troll, but there are now more adult gamers than juvenile ones*, and gaming now brings in more money than movies.

For Linux to reach a larger audience means catering to portions of that audience who just want free stuff.

Oddly, it also means catering to the portions of that audience who just want to give away free stuff.

* According to a 2007 Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, more than half (53 percent) of American adults play video games, and about one in five adults (21%) play every day or almost every day.

I think the idea is basically to start freeing the entertainment PC industry from Microsoft's clutches, especially as the trend towards "App stores", centrally DRMed software, and hardware lockdown is making it's way to the PC - both Microsoft and Apple are moving that way, and that puts Valve at a distinct disadvantage as an app store, why go to them when your OS vendor has their store built in to the GUI? So instead they package their own OS streamlined specifically for gaming. After all last I heard Va

I think the idea is blazingly obvious - release a relatively thin client (which happens to be Linux but like XBMC could be anything) and stream games through the cloud. That is what is going on here.

I expect that in the future when you buy a game on steam that there will be a "play instantly" option. Maybe you can even rent games this way, or subscribe to the service. But by decoupling where the game runs from where it is played, it doesn't matter what architecture or OS the user has. Cloud gaming in othe

Grrr... Third such unsubstantiated statement from you on this story. Seriously, do you have any shred of evidence suggesting Steam is planning to centralize the gaming hardware and stream the games from the cloud? Cause you're the only person that seems to believe so.

Anyone? Really? Sure it may become popular for casual gamers, but there's two major problems with your scenario: bandwidth and lag.

Streaming a 32 bit 60Hz 1080p signal takes a LOT of bandwidth, ~4Gbps uncompressed, and good luck compressing it significantly in real time without dedicating far more computational power than rendering it in the first place. And doing so will introduce even more lag into an already bad situation. Your brain has a lifetime of experience dealing with ~125ms of lag between seei

Really? Perhaps you are using the term differently than I. Or perhaps you live in a universe where Microsoft gives Windows away to PC manufacturers for free? I guarantee you that if you buy a new Windows PC there will be a chunk of that money that finds it's way into Microsoft's pocket to pay for the copy of Windows. If you don't actually *want* Windows then that's the "Microsoft tax". Yes, there are a few places distributing Linux-based or

And after 8 hours of downloading, downloading patches, downloading more patches and then constantly downloading over 8Gb for one game that I never got installed (freebie with an indie bundle) I gave up. Never seen such a shoddy, bitty interface and download structure (not to mention speed).

I have several big games on Origin that I've redeemed from bundles, etc. and I honestly don't care enough to install it again.

yes, Origin is a sad excuse of DRM system... looking at desura and steam, it's so easy to work with... with Origin, it's a never ending install saga of apps (all full of spyware, just check your firewall logs) and then to play, you have to open the browser and install even more plugins (again heavy and with all sort of tracking).

Those guys need to trash it all and learn that KISS is (and stop trying to spy/track their users)

Origin do refund games _if you don't like them_.
Steam won't refund utterlly broken trash games, except "War Z" which was a disaster.
It happened with X:Rebirth very recently: people edit XML savegame to progress through the story. Some others CTD on startup. Steam support won't refund, they say you used the software for 2 hours so they can't and won't, it's alpha quality at best sold 50 USD. Origin would refund, Amazon would refund, Steam tells you to GTFO.
I was a rabid Steam fan once, no longer.